


The First Human

by SilverSonny



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Asgore is.... Himself, Asriel is Eager, BUT I'm not writing about that it's different in here, Because Asriel mentions they did it for an "unhappy reason" so uhhh yeah, Gen, I know that Chara might have fallen willingly into the underground, Nonbinary Chara (Undertale), So kind of canon-divergent, Toriel is Kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-20 22:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16564487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverSonny/pseuds/SilverSonny
Summary: Chara had a habit of counting their heartbeats. It was something they had done to busy themselves, on the surface.Chara falls for a slightly unhappy reason and finds something unexpected.





	The First Human

Chara had a habit of counting their heartbeats. It was something they had done to busy themselves, on the surface. They had done it then.

The world had been bathed in the rosy golden light of the rising sun, halfway buried beneath the ground. Chara had looked over the city full of chrome skyscrapers. They could not see their home, the place they had stayed when everything seemed so small and sectioned, and they were glad. They could see the world as it was, wide and so much more important than themself.

Finally.

Traffic pushed on through all of the roads and highways as the sun continued to rise, clouds dusting along the upside down sea once in a while. Chara didn’t know how long they stayed there. They had woken up in a ratty nightgown in the middle of the night and stared at themself in the bathroom mirror.   
  
Their orange hair billowed around them, stuck together in knots, their dark eyes sullen and looking toward things but never at them, their skin a sickly pale, their beauty marks fading, and it had been too much. Finally. They dressed into the only partially clean clothing they had and walked the streets in them; An undershirt beneath a wool lime green patterned sweater, jeans, and boots.

An incoming breeze wafted through the already chilly air that bit at Chara’s skin so high up. It made their hair whip around their face. For the first time in a long time, Chara felt alive. 

_ One, two, three, four, five…  _ They counted the beats that they felt with two fingers on the wrist of their other hand where their aqua-colored veins showed. They turned swiftly, and began to march up the mountain. Trees full with leaves even in the harsh Autumn that was giving way to Winter lined it, coloring it a dim green normally.

Chara passed in between two similar trees with outstretching branches as if they were welcoming the child. They were headed straight toward a cave opening, alight with a white rock.  
  
Chara marched into the cave. Despite the rock being bright, it was dark there, and they blinked to adjust to the light. Little sharp overhangs stood right near their head, and if they took one wrong step… They felt something shift beneath their feet and, without much thought, stepped away to stand on slightly flatter ground once more.

But the ground did not become flatter. It gave way up to their heel, and they knew. As they tumbled down slowly, like in a dream, they searched with their hands for any kind of grip. Soon they gave up- It was futile, because the rock became all smooth a ways down. Everything just kept growing darker, and Chara wasn’t sure if their eyesight was going fuzzy or if they had fallen into a bottomless pit. 

_ One, two, three, four- _

It was very hard to keep up with how rapidly their heart was beating, and their fear was one of adrenaline. The kind of fear that is so horrible you hardly can even tell that you’re afraid. 

They didn’t feel themself land either.

-

When they awoke, it was completely dark. When they grabbed, whatever they were splayed against on their stomach was soft. Whenever they tried to push themself up a searing pain spread through their right arm. They gasped.

Sweeping footsteps and quiet voices echoed throughout the cavity. Chara managed with great effort to push up and to sit on their side, but it was badly bruised and ached when they had too much pressure on it.

They glimpsed a light in the distance, dim and orange like a candle. It seemed so bright to their unadjusted eyes that they covered their face momentarily.

“I know, I know. I’m being careful.  _ Oh! _ What is that? Hand me the camera- Uh, please- I want to take a picture!” a child’s voice said, far off but getting closer. Just before Chara had heard the voice there had been a terrifying thought that set into their head.

_ Am I dead? _

But they were slowly calming down. They didn’t know exactly where they were, and couldn’t remember what they had done in the recent past, but they knew that if there were voices there then there were people. Friendly or not, they would soon see.

The light really did become brighter, and Chara realized that it was a lantern. Someone had adjusted the fiery glow. It illuminated the whole area around them, the stooping areas and the small holes within the black rock. Chara looked down and found that they were laying in a trashed patch of huge golden flowers. 

When they looked forward more, they saw white cloven hooves, and pictured a goat. “Woah.” Alongside the quiet exclamation of the person in front of Chara, the flash of some kind of camera stung their eyes. It let out a small click, and the sound of paper rolling up echoed.

“Mo-Momma!” Quicker footsteps came through, and two other sets of cloven hooves appeared a little ways away from the first. “What is it, my dear? Oh.”

One from the back came forward. Chara looked up and the breath was taken away from their lungs. In front of them was something resembling a goat, with a wide, white, furry face parted jaws revealing little fangs, horns protruding from the top of its head. It was wearing clothes like a person and standing on two legs. One furry hand, not hooved, extended toward Chara’s face.

“My goodness. What kind of monster are you, child?” the thing said, in a gruff and fatherly voice. Chara let out a tiny squeak. The smaller figure peered closer, and Chara found the most brilliant green eyes they had ever seen. They sparkled like a diamond in the light of the lantern so near them.

“It’s like a skeleton but weird.” A separate, gentle and soothing voice reprimanded, “Don’t be rude, Asriel.  _ They _ seem very lovely. Can you stand, little one?” 

Chara tried, wincing when they forgot a bit about their right arm. But they managed to stand up, and they were nothing compared to the towering height of the figures…. Monsters. Even the smallest one was taller than they were. 

“There we are.” The one that the gentle voice belonged to came forward. She looked delicate, in a queenly and dangerous way. She put two furry hands on either side of Chara’s face and wiped away some dirt that made a long streak across their cheek.

“Lovely. Do you have a name? I can understand signs, if you cannot or do not wish to conversate verbally.” Chara took a very deep breath.

“Ch-Chara. Who… What are you?” The smallest figure gasped. It, or he, tapped the gentle one’s shoulder insistently. “Oh, mom, what if it’s- I mean they- Have never seen other monsters before?”

The gentle one seemed to consider this. She clicked her tongue. Her breath smelled of cinnamon. “Then I suppose it is our duty to take them in. I am Toriel, queen of Home. This is my husband the king, Asgore, and our son. Asriel. It is pleasant meeting you, though the circumstances may not be favorable, young one,” she said, each word spoken slowly and sincerely.

Asriel moved closer. He held the picture he had snapped in his hand, and showed it to Chara. Chara frowned when looking at it. It was a very poor quality photo, oversaturated with the bright flash of the camera and the natural light of the lantern. It depicted Chara sitting in the patch of golden flowers looking like a frightened animal, glancing up with their an arm over their forehead with widened eyes

“Seriously, what kinda monster are you?” Chara pushed the hand holding the picture away from them. They gathered the gall to speak, and smoothly, loudly, they said, “I’m not a  _ monster. _ I’m a human. Obviously.”

Each one of the figures stared at them in shock.

**Author's Note:**

> Undertale, huh? With the release of Deltarune I wanted to go back to one of my first special interests and the first thing I wrote serious fics for. Chara is a big comfort character to me, even though it may sound silly, and I wanted to write them in a bit of a positive light. But I won't get into the Disc Ourse right now lmao. :P


End file.
